Blue Spot Puffer (Tobi) flow

[ReefsandGeeks]

I recently decided I'd try a blue spot puffer in my mixed reef tank. I know they are considered not reef safe because they eat snails and crabs and such, but after much research couldn't find many instances of any eating coral. I don't have any prized snails, no crabs or shrimp, so I figured I'd try the puffer since I've always wanted one.

Since I put him in the tank yesterday evening, he's mostly just stayed near the bottom in the corner. I don't know if my tank has too much flow for him since I know they aren't the best swimmers. I have a 40 gallon tank with a single powerhead rated at 800GPH, though I suspect it's closer to 500-600 as it's a cheaper brand. Is this too much for the puffer? I've seen him swim up and around a bit for a few seconds several times, but always quickly goes back to his corner.

 

[Moort82]

I wouldn't be overly worried. I haven't kept a bluespot but had a valentini and it was capable of holding itself in the same position a few inches from a powered stronger than yours. Infact it happily fed in very strong current and as long as you have quiet spots in the tank it should be happy.
mine was skinny to begin with but like most of my fish soon fatten up with the extra flow, so as long as it's feeding I think you'll be OK.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Thanks, he was swimming around a lot more yesterday. Only ate a little bit of Mysis, but did eat. hoping he eats more today as he's warming up to the tank. What do you feed yours to keep the teeth warn down? The LFS I went to said PE Mysis was a good option, but I'm not sure that that would be tough enough to wear down teeth?

 

[Moort82]

I tend to feed a mix of things as it eats anything including flake. I try and add some tougher food like whole prawns or cockle in the shell, mussels etc. I attach them to a sucker on the front and it pecks at them throughout the day.

 

[marleesan]

My blue spot only ate frozen mysis, but his teeth were fine. He has some snails he could have eaten, but he never touched them. Mine wasn't the biggest swimmer, but was my favorite fish. It's normal for them to swim only in the bottom area

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Thanks for the replies, after the first day he's been swimming around just fine, with the exception of today. Today he's just been staying hidden, practically velcrowed to the rock all day. He typically does that at night, but never during the day. Is this normal? also, he's not really eating much. I've been feeding mysis, but he'll kinda pick at one, spitting it out a few times then seems to lose interest.

 

[trembz]

I swear these are the most hardy fish ever.
I've had 2 complete tank wipeouts from velvet and uronema and this puffer survived both. He was the only fish to live through both wipe outs... I'm telling you he could live in a toilet bowl if it came down to it

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[makers marc]

I think you are making a fair observation. We never seem to factor in flow when it comes to livestock purchases. You always hear ppl say "its much rougher in the ocean" than our tanks.

But I know flow can be an issue, particularly when theres only a finite amount of low flow areas available in a tank, sometimes those areas are dominated by another fish. So our weaker swimmers are forced to deal with higher flow, swim stronger, get weaker, then stress and die.

I had an ORA pygmy filefish that couldnt handle the flow for my SPS tank. After a few weeks, it started just clinging to the rock with its mouth then died. Same with some clownfish, where my royal gramma and fairy wrasse refused to let it stay in my low flow areas...